Tokyo fest keeps distance from Chinese dispute

Event includes several films from China and Hong Kong

TOKYO — The Tokyo Film Festival unveiled its 25th edition on Thursday, including one pic from China, Wang Jing’s “Feng Shui,” in its competition, and several more from China and Hong Kong in its Winds of Asia-Middle East section. The fest unspools Oct. 20-28 in the Roppongi Hills complex in central Tokyo.

Despite anti-Japanese demos raging in dozens of Chinese cities over Japan’s claim to the disputed Senkaku Islands (called the Diaoyu Islands in China), the fest “has not been affected by the recent developments,” the event’s chairman Tom Yoda told reporters.

Among the other 14 pics in the competition section, selected from 1,332 entries, are Tetsuaki Matsue’s “Flashback Memories 3D,” a 3D drama about a man with memory dysfunction, who uses the didgeridoo in his rehabilitation, Pablo Larrain’s “No,” a political drama starring Gael Garcia Bernal, Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s “What Maisie Knew,” an updating of the classic Henry James tale of family dissolution, and “The Black Square,” Hiroshi Okuhara’s set-in-Beijing drama about the fall-out from a man’s odd encounter with a black square floating in the sky.

Among other sections are Japanese Eyes (Japanese indie pics), World Cinema (pics previously screened at major fests that have not yet secured Japanese distribution deals), Natural TIFF (nature docus) and Special Screenings (commercial pics, both foreign and domestic, that will soon open theatrically in Japan).

The official opening film will be the James Cameron-produced 3D spectacle “Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away,” which will also be a world preem; the closing film, Robert Lorenz’s “Trouble with the Curve,” starring Clint Eastwood as an aging major league scout, and the special opening film, “Japan in a Day,” a Ridley-Scott-produced assemblage of video clips marking one day in the life of Japan. Finally, the fest will screen footage from “Skyfall,” the Sam Mendes thriller that marks the 50th anniversary of the James Bond franchise.

The fest will also present a section of three pics — “The Cannonball Run,” “Police Story” and “Mr. Vampire” — honoring veteran Hong Kong producer Raymond Chow, as well as giving Chow himself a Special Appreciation Award.

Symbolic of the fest’s eco theme instituted by Yoda four editions ago, on opening day the fest will roll out a green carpet made of recycled polyester fiber equivalent to about 51,000 half-liter PET bottles.

Meanwhile, the 9th TIFFCOM market will be held Oct. 23-25 at a new, larger venue in the Hotel Grand Pacific Le Daiba, located in the trendy Odaiba shopping, entertainment and sight-seeing area on Tokyo Bay.